Who deserves to eat? Moreover, who gets to decide who eats? And what are the determining factors?
Does where you live determine whether you should be able to eat or not?
Does how much money you make determine whether you should eat or not?
Does your level of productivity determine if you should eat or not?
If you discovered your aging parent was missing meals because they didn’t have enough food, wouldn’t you bring them a hot meal? Or maybe you found out your college-age kid wasn’t getting enough meals at school- you’d probably send them a great big care package.
But what the grandma whose kids have moved away and she has no one to bring her food that covers the hungry times? What about the 20 year old who is on their own, doing their best, but still going hungry?
What precludes you from being worthy of enough calories?
People are quick to say work harder, get a better job, work more hours….
Imagine you are a single mom through no fault of your own. Child care costs as much as your mortgage, so in order to go to work you need someone to watch your children. If you don’t have family or friends that are able or willing to babysit regularly, you’re going to have to have a job that makes enough money to cover the all of the costs. This is hard enough for households with 2 working parents, but somehow our society expects single moms to do it alone without help and without complaining because “they chose this.”
Even if your children are school age, you still need after school care, which is more expensive per hour. But let’s not miss out on all of the half days, holidays, school programs, conferences, IEP meetings, and it’s not forget sick days, checkups, and dentist appointments. If your child or children have special needs, the number of appointments can easily triple or more. If they need speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational theory or other things, these are weekly appointments that can make it nearly impossible to work. Does that mom and child deserve to not eat because they have to spend all their business hours trying to get well?
Do homeless people deserve to eat? 50% of homeless people actually have jobs. They’re trying, they just don’t make enough money to afford a place to eat and live. They’re working but finding it impossible to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Do they deserve to eat?
What about addicts? Addiction is a disease. Yes, it may come with a lot of bad choices and mistakes but underneath that disease is another human being just trying to get through life the best way they know how. Do you really mean it when you say they don’t deserve to eat? Maybe a few hot meals, a chance to learn that there is some good in this world would give them the energy and security to invest themselves in rehab (which is another issue – rehab is expensive and hard and that’s not their fault).
Who decides what people get to eat? A creator on instagram said people on snap should be given a box of only healthy fresh foods. But here’s the thing…. processed foods are literally cheaper and they are much more shelf stable. Why on earth would you buy fresh meat or veggies that would go bad in a couple days when you could buy much cheaper noodles or even potato chips which will stay good for months? Furthermore, food is cultural and what is considered healthy in one area might not be the same in another area. Or even available. About 6% of the United States lives in a food desert – defined as a place where there isn’t easy access to healthy food or good quality fresh food. So do these people not deserve to eat?
Have you ever eaten a piece of chocolate to make yourself feel better? Or gone out to eat after a stressful day because you’re just worn out? Do you only deserve this kind of comfort if you are a certain social or economic status? or is it ok for a small child to eat a cookie after a long day at school?
We don’t need to police WHO gets to eat or WHAT they want to eat. Let’s just make sure that everyone has the opportunity to eat.